Level Up
'''Level Up '''is the third episode of Barking Bad's third season and the 18th episode of the series overall. Synopsis Teaser Jesse Puppy drives his motorhome through the Mojave desert and realizes he's short on fuel, so he pulls over to the nearest gas station. He enters the gas station's store and realizes he only has enough cash to pay for a quarter tank, though he needs a half tank to be able to drive all the way back to Petropolis. Jesse searches through his other pockets and finds a few grams of the crystal meth he cooked last week and offers it to the cashier girl. At first, she declines, but after a few moments of thinking, she accepts the meth and Jesse is able to pay for a half tank, just barely enough to get back home. Soon after, police arrive at the gas station, but the teaser ends just before we know what happens to the cashier girl. Main Episode Dudley White goes insane about his wife cheating on him in the last episode. He drives all the way to Ted's office building in downtown and attempts to enter his office. Ted watches from outside and locks the door. Dudley then decides to grab a nearby potted plant and attempts to break his window, but the plant only ricochets off the glass and hits Dudley back. Security guards arrive at the scene and escort Dudley out of the lobby and all the way back to the parking lot. He tries to reenter, but before he can walk through the door, Crofford grabs him by the neck and takes him back to his car. Once there, he tells Dudley to call Keswick. The next day, Dudley is seen teaching at the UP. Midway through class, he's called up to Ms. Merket's office to discuss his recent erratic behavior in class. Instead of coming up with a response, Dudley awkwardly attempts to kiss her, but Merket instantly backs away and places Dudley on indefinite leave from the campus. He walks back to class, packs his belongings, and leaves for the parking lot. Jesse also happens to be in the lot, with a box containing bags of meth he cooked using his own process. Dudley isn't impressed as the meth is foggy rather than crystal clear, and tells Jesse that he's not cooking with him anymore, and will instead attend a meeting with Gus for the possibilities of cooking in a super meth lab. Jesse storms off while Dudley pulls out of the parking lot, but as he speeds down the driveway, he remembers his belongings are still on top of the car and they fall off as he hits the gas pedal. Back at the DEA of Petropolis, Hank and Steven interrogate an addict who reveals one of the sources of the crystal that's been entering Petropolis. He reveals that the meth cooker's name starts with an "M", but that's everything he knows about the cooker himself. Hank thinks it may be a hint to the "Heisenbark" he's been tracking down for the past few months. Crofford meets with Gus to discuss Dudley's situation. Crofford explains that Dudley's mental health has been unstable due to his recent breakup, but once his health returns to normal, he should be able to cook meth with Gus again. Jesse may also be able to work with them, but Gus emphasizes again that he doesn't work with junkies. Hank is called over to the same gas station where Jesse bought gas with meth in the teaser. The police department is also there, but Hank is called in to interrogate the cashier. The girl starts to cry and says the man had blue eyes and a tan-ish coat, and pulled into the gas station in a brown RV. He asks her if there's any security cameras around the station, and she says there's a few outside near the pumps that still work. Hank walks over to the camera and exclaims "Bingo". Jesse drives through the outskirts of Petropolis in late afternoon, when all of a sudden, Viktor Rashkovsky pulls next to him and requests some of the crystal. He hands Viktor 1 pound, but Viktor only hands him half of the payment. "Where's the other half b*tch?" Jesse yells as Viktor drives off. Later on when Dudley drives home from the meeting with Gus, Viktor tosses the other half of the payment through Dudley's window. The next scene is a flashback to the pilot episode. A younger Dudley with his full head of hair gives Jesse the majority of his life savings to buy a motorhome to cook crystal in. Instead of buying the RV, Jesse visits the strip club with Honey Badger and Banana Bread and spends a great sum of Dudley's cash on sleeping with a stripper. When he wakes up in the morning, Jesse realizes he only has $1,100 left and thinks he's screwed, but Banana Bread offers to find a motorhome for that kind of money. Later that day, Bread steals an RV and keeps the money Jesse gave him. Back in present time, Skyler walks away from Ted's bed after a steamy sex session. Ted tells Skyler that she can stay at his place for as long as she wants. Meanwhile at the White residence, Dudley is tucking Cooper into her sheets until he receives a phone call from Jesse. Jesse demands the other half of the payment as Jesse is responsible for cooking the meth, not Dudley. Dudley argues that Jesse used his formula and ingredients and still couldn't cook meth that was 70% pure. Jesse angrily hangs up. Despite warnings from his coworkers, Hank searches numerous RV's without a warrant. He knocks down the door of an RV that matches the description the cashier girl gave him, only to find a couple in bed taking their clothes off. He slowly backs away and searches for other motorhomes, but to no luck. Hank, now embarrassed, decides to take a break from Petropolis and work at Petsburg's DEA headquarters. Dudley arranges another meeting with Gus, and they meet at Kung Pao Pollos. Gus tells Dudley that Jesse won't be cooking with him anymore, and it will just be Dudley and an unknown assistant working with what Gus is about to show him. Gus drives Dudley to an industrial factory in a small town 30 miles outside of Petropolis. They enter the factory and go through a series of doors and stairs until they reach what Gus wanted to show Dudley: a state of the art 20,000 sqft super meth lab. "Your new lab, you'll be cooking here for the rest of your life" Gus tells him before walking back upstairs. Trivia * This episode is inspired by the Breaking Bad episode "Green Light" and the first half of "Mas" * This is the first time Banana Bread makes an appearance in the show after his death in season 2.